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Food Purchased at Markets

You can save hundreds of dollars a year by shopping at lower-priced food stores. Convenience stores often charge the highest price.

You will spend less on food if you shop with a list, take advantage of sales, and purchase basic ingredients, rather than pre-packaged components or ready-made items.

You can save hundreds of dollars a year by comparing price-per-ounce or other unit prices on shelf labels. Stock up on those items with low per-unit costs.

Prescription Drugs

Since brand name drugs are usually much more expensive than their generic equivalents, ask your physician and pharmacist if a less expensive generic or an over the counter alternative is available.

Since pharmacies may charge widely different prices for the same medicine, call several. When taking a drug for a long time, also consider calling mail-order pharmacies, which often charge lower prices.

Funeral Arrangements

Plan ahead, making your wishes known about your funeral, memorial, or burial arrangements in writing to save your family or estate unnecessary expense.

For information about the least costly options, which may save you several thousand dollars, contact a local Funeral Consumer Alliance or memorial society, which are usually listed in the Yellow Pages under funeral services.

Before selecting a funeral home, call several and ask for prices of specific goods and services, or visit them to obtain an itemized price list. You are entitled to this information by law.

Change Your Habits

Be sure to include snack foods like muffins, fruit and cookies for morning and afternoon breaks as well as a lunch. If you also drink the office brew or bring a thermos of coffee, you can save $10 to $15 a day. If there’s no lunchroom at work, eat and read the paper at your desk or take your lunch to the park. You’ll be healthier as well as richer.

Go out for dinner just once a month and eliminate take-out foods from your menu - Cook roasts, casseroles and stews that will last a couple of evenings, and keep some frozen dinners, canned soups and pasta sauce on hand for evenings when you are tired and short of time. Cutting back on eating out and ordering in can save you as much as $200 per month.

Cancel subscriptions to magazines you don’t read and cable or satellite TV services you don’t watch regularly -Cutting back to the magazines and channels that are essential to you can save you $100 or more per year. You can save even more by cutting your newspaper subscription back to weekends only and getting your news at work, on TV or online during the week. You’ll have less paper to recycle, too.

Use quality low-cost food shops - The idea that Tesco is cheap is a myth. Like all of the big-four supermarkets, it has headline-grabbing bargains to lure you in then leaves you at the mercy of the millions it spends tempting customers to buy everything else at whatever price it chooses. If you must use supermarkets over the local market, I've found Asda to be the cheapest of the big four. But discerning money savers should check out...